“What?” almost screamed Miss Scrimp. “Do you accuse me of opening one of your letters?”
“Yes—I do. There were two witnesses to the act.”
“It’s a lie! There wasn’t a single one beside me in the room,” yelled Miss Scrimp, wild and desperate. “No one could have seen me do it.”
“Three witnesses, since you have turned State’s evidence, and confessed it!” said Hattie, so provokingly quiet.
“I didn’t confess. I only said no one saw me do it.”
“Oh, yes, there did—and I will be able to prove it before the magistrate when I have you arrested. If you had confessed your fault at once I might have excused your criminal curiosity, and forgiven you in the hope that hereafter you would be a wiser and a better woman. But since you deny your guilt I may as well prove it and have you punished. Inside the walls of a prison you may have time to reflect on the manner in which you have treated poor girls who were in your power. You will get better board there than your boarders get here.”
“In prison?” gasped Miss Scrimp.
“Yes, in prison, where you will be sent for breaking the seal of my letter.”
“I didn’t break the seal—I only tore it open at the end!” whined the wretched culprit.
“With your thumb-nail. No matter where or how you opened my private letter after taking it from the hands of your servant, who received it from the postman.”